Page 10 of See You Maybe

“I’ll be back when I can.” His violet stare met his father’s. He would not defend his decision.

Red crept up his father’s neck, and he slammed his hands down on his desk. “You are my son and an officer of this company. You can’t gallivant around the world paying off criminals for your brother.”

Blood beat behind Declan’s eyes. “Only for my father, then?”

David Bloom’s eyes narrowed. “Be careful, boy. I’ve given you this position, and I can take it away just as easily.” He snapped his fingers. “You have two brothers behind you, happy to take your place.”

Declan’s spine tingled, even though he knew it was a bluff. “Neither Luke nor James have any interest in working for this company, and you know it. They haven’t even graduated college yet.” He leaned forward, bracing his hands, arms extended on his father’s wide wood desk, and let his father see his resolve.

David Bloom was a bully, and he would pounce if Declan showed the slightest weakness. “I’ve earned my spot in this company, but if you don’t want me here anymore, say the word. I’ve got no problem going somewhere else.”

To his surprise, his father was the first to blink. David Bloom picked up his fountain pen and scribbled a signature across the check in front of him. Declan straightened.

“Two weeks.” His father held up a finger. “I don’t give a fuck what is happening with your degenerate brother, or how angry your mother is with me. Your ass is in your seat in that board room in two weeks.”

Declan controlled his features. Was his father saying what he thought he was saying?

David’s upper lip wrinkled. “You’ve been asking long enough.”

“You’ll name me president.” It wasn’t a question.

“Two weeks.” He returned to his papers. “Send Lucille in on your way out.”

Declan stared at his father’s bent head for a minute, his jaw working. It was the carrot his father had dangled in front of him for years. Everyone knew that, despite his age, Declan was making more and more of the decisions at Bloom Communications, and that this was the path always intended for him.

He didn’t have any illusions that his father was giving up control. David Bloom would still be in charge as CEO, but it was the first step in handing over the reins.

“Tell Siobhan I send my love,” David Bloom called, as Declan reached the door.

That was a week ago. The situation with Seamus had been easier to smooth over than Declan first thought. Once he handed over the cash, it seemed all was forgiven by the Albanians.

“I’ve convinced him to take a position in the States with one...”

Declan trailed off, his attention caught by something over Colum’s shoulder.

She’s still here.

A bizarre feeling of excitement passed through him at the sight of her, swiftly extinguished as he watched her stumble through the bar. Her eyes were owlish and she had a vaguely confused expression on her face. Declan tracked her until she joined a group on the side. He peered across the crowded pub. That didn’t look like the group she came in with. But at that distance he couldn’t be sure.

“He’s leaving Dublin?” Colum’s ginger eyebrows climbed his forehead.

Declan forced his eyes away from the beauty. “For now, at least.”

Colum clapped him on the back. “Hope it works out.” His tone didn’t hold much hope. Declan sighed. He didn’t have much either.

A cold, steady rain began, and Declan lifted the stool he was half-perched on further into the doorway. He stretched his neck, and scanned the thinning crowd.

His blood blazed white hot.

From the back hallway, the brunette was being led—more accurately half-carried—by two drunk idiots. Her head bobbled, and Declan surged to his feet and raised his hand to signal Colum at the end of the bar, but his cousin was busy talking to a customer and didn’t see.

Declan’s fists clenched, his body thrumming with an irrational level of rage. Any woman being taken advantage of would make him angry, but the absolute primal desire to protect this girl was new and slightly alarming.

Declan forced himself to stay where he was. He watched the men hold her up against the bar and felt a moment’s relief when one of Colum’s bartenders took one look at the girl and shook his head with a scowl.

Finally catching his cousin’s eye over the crowd, he lifted his chin toward the trio. Colum frowned and immediately made his way toward the two men. The McGrath’s had very strict policies on behavior in their pubs, and everyone knew it. These morons must be tourists to think they would get away with that shit here.

Denied at the bar, they moved toward the door, their speed slowed by the woman held up between them, who stumbled every few feet. One of the assholes slid his hand under her skirt, and when her face scrunched as she tried to twist away, Declan was off the stool before he realized it. Hauling the man groping her back by his collar, Declan threw him to the side as Colum roared Declan’s name. Probably in a vain attempt to remind Declan to keep his head. Too late.